Doctor Darko Vasilevski on the fifth day of his hunger strike: “My enthusiasm grows from the support”

The fifth day of his hunger strike found doctor Darko Vasilevski once again in front of the Dean’s Office of the Faculty of Medicine in Skopje, where he is protesting peacefully after being rejected for the third time in a job competition. As Sloboden Pečat reports, Vasilevski stated that citizens’ support is giving him strength: “My enthusiasm grows from the support.”

Vasilevski, a doctor and a private resident in sports medicine, claims he was discriminated against because of his age — 45. According to his account, as early as 2022 a commission member had sent him a message that he was “old” and that there was no place for him there, while at the 2023 interview the age issue was raised again. In this year’s latest competition, as he claims, a commission member told him directly: “You are from the year ’80.”

The reason for the protest is the latest competition for the employment of two doctors on indefinite contracts at the Institute of Medical and Experimental Physiology with Anthropology. Vasilevski says he met all the competition conditions and that he was the only candidate who had completed all the rotations of the specialisation in sports medicine.

The case has opened an institutional debate. Health Minister Sasho Klekovski stated that he is familiar with the case, but stressed that employments at the Faculty of Medicine are the competence of the Ministry of Education and Science, not of Health — the Faculty is an educational institution. He added that if Vasilevski applies in the second group of 300 residents who will be employed in public healthcare and meets the conditions, he will be accepted. Education Minister Vesna Janevska also said last week that her ministry has no competence for the employment of specialists at the Faculty of Medicine.

Meanwhile Vasilevski has set up a bench and a tent in front of the Dean’s Office, where he says he will stay 24 hours a day until he receives an answer. Earlier he complained that some colleagues “are in winter sleep” and that the Association of Residents has turned against him — but he stresses that his protest is not directed against any specific person.